Preliminary figures show that over 1.76 million passengers passed through the airport from Dec. 19 to Jan. 5, and the airporthandled more than 1.6 million passengers during the equivalent period a year ago.

There were over 10,000 of flight movements during the holiday season, 8.4 percent more than last year's 9,620 movements.

Management Director Howard Eng said the figure was encouraging.

"Calendar year 2002 was a good year for HKIA in terms of passengers and, especially, air cargo," he said.

"Aviation in this region has continued to grow a stronger rate than elsewhere, and HKIA has been able to capitalize on that," Howard Eng added.

(Xinhua News Agency January 8, 2003)